Don’t you worry about me. I’m fine. Really.

As you can imagine, the last few weeks have been filled thoughts of excitement, wonder, and a dwindling amount of shock. But honestly, I’m pretty certain I have been (unknowingly) preparing to have twins since I was about 8 or 9-years-old.

Before “tweens”and helicopter parenting existed, and well before In-N-Out Burger came to NorCal, I was just a girl obsessed with babies. If they happened to be twins, even better. At the time, my mom had a friend from church who was having twins and you can bet I thought that was pretty cool. So, you can only imagine that when she asked if I could take care of her babies once in a while I was over the moon! One other baby-obsessed friend and I (and, in the beginning, usually a one of our moms) would tag team and watch the girls together. Even though it wasn’t a cake walk, we were in heaven.

Eventually (to my dismay), that family moved away, and it wasn’t until middle-school that I started up again…. with twins. This time they were fraternal and I recall some crazy adventures with those kids. Ever get locked out of the house you’re sitting at… with the one-year-old twins inside and have to find a neighbor to figure out a way in for you? Via breaking the sliding glass door? With hysterical toddlers locked inside? Before there were cell phones? Yeah, that was fun.

Fast-forward to present day, that friend who babysat the twins with me and I are still close… and she has twins slightly older than Thad. We talk about it now, and with my own set of twins on the horizon, we both feel as though those first baby-sitting jobs (she also sat for the second family with twins) were preparing us for our own twins. It’s almost as if we locked in our fate. If you had asked us then if we would ever think that in a million years we would both end up with twins (let alone one of us), we would have said no, but hoped to dear god that it would be true.

So, yes. I’m ready. No, I’m not scared. And yes, I’m handing all this in stride. To answer most everyone’s (current) question, yes, I’m doing just fine. In fact, I think this pregnancy will be pretty epic. Here’s why:

The number game. When you’re pregnant, it’s amazing how your belly and your business suddenly becomes the topic of conversation. For example, when you’re on the street and people look at how large you are and comment that you must be due any day now. Or else they tell you what you’re having. Now I get to enjoy when people tell me at 5-months that I must be due any day now, and just smile and tell them, No, actually I’m not due until early October.

The guessing game. Regardless if it’s a boy and a girl, or two boys (we know one is a boy), it will be fun to tell almost everyone they’re wrong when they guess. Or to simply smile and say thank you when I get tired of the guessing.

The whale. Towards the end of the pregnancy the looks of horror at how huge I am will be priceless (especially considering that at 15w I’m already looking like I did when I was 20w with the first kid). I promise to try and get some pictures of this.

The “guess how many people are on this bike/walk/hike” game. I seriously get a kick out of riding my bike with Thad in the kid seat and saying to Mark, hey, guess how many people are on this bike? Then we both laugh at the fact that there’s four. Or when I’m walking Thad and the two dogs in the afternoons, I giggle to myself over the fact that there are not two people and two dogs on the walk, but four people and two dogs. Yes, this makes me smile.

The whale, part two. When I go to the pool for laps, the look on the other swimmers’ faces when I get out will be amazing. (Usually it’s hard to tell what someone’s full body it like when they’re in the water. That or people aren’t really paying attention; least at my gym since it’s full of old people and families.)

We’ll be done. I always wanted three kids, so this just speeds up the process a little and while the next few years will be a challenge, we’ll be done having kids. It’s kind of bittersweet because I’m a little bummed I won’t be pregnant three times, but you bet that the hubs is pretty stoked.

Thanks, Jess! We’re actually excited about it. I know many people are concerned for us, wondering if we’re okay, but if the next few years are quick and dirty, then I’m down. Just means I get to stop living in yoga pants and Lululemon year round a bit sooner. Ha!

Ha! My favourite part about carrying twins was the name-telling game. “Have we come up with names? Why, yes. If it is two girls, my husband likes Ester and Polly, but I prefer Portia and Mercedes. If a boy and a girl? We’re learning towards Magnus and Agnes. Two boys? Darwin and Jesus (pronounced HEY-Zuess).”